January 14, 2023, 4:41 PM
January 14, 2023, 4:41 PM
Chronology of the crisis that shakes Brazil, from the election of Lula to the judicial actions that investigate the alleged involvement of former president Jair Bolsonaro in the assault of the main institutions of the country by a mob.
On October 30, 2022, the leader of the left and former president (2003-2010) Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, 77, prevails by a short margin (50.9% to 49.1%) to the outgoing president, Jair Bolsonaro, in the second round of a campaign marked by strong tensions.
Two days later, Bolsonarist protesters who reject the result roadblocks intensify.
Bolsonaro, whose term will end on January 1, 2023, ensures that it will comply with “all the commandments” of the Constitution, without explicitly acknowledging his defeat.
He also calls for lifting the roadblocks, but explains the actions of his supporters as “fruit of indignation and a feeling of injustice” and defends “peaceful demonstrations”.
A bumpy transition
Bolsonaro secludes himself for weeks at his official residence in Brasilia until December 10 when he showed up to tell a group of supporters: “I’ve been silent for practically 40 days. It hurts, it hurts in the soul.”
On Christmas Eve, the police Arrests a man for planting an explosive in a fuel truck near the Brasilia airport with the intention of generating “chaos” and causing “the intervention of the Armed Forces” before Lula’s inauguration.
On December 30, Bolsonaro travels to the United States, two days before the end of his term.
On January 1, Lula returns to power, twelve years after the end of his last term.Today is three years and one month after spending 580 days in jail on corruption charges.
The ceremony in Brasilia, under a scorching sun, takes place before hundreds of thousands of supporters dressed in red – the color of Lula’s Workers’ Party (PT), and amid heavy police surveillance.
In his inaugural address, He vows to “rebuild” the country on the “ruins” of Bolsonaro’s legacy.
assault on institutions
On January 8, a horde of Nearly 4,000 Bolsonaristas concentrated in Brasilia invade and loot the buildings of the Presidency of the RepublicCongress and the Supreme Court.
Lula denounces an action of “coup plotters”whom he describes as “fascist hooligans” stimulated by Bolsonaro’s “speeches”.
The far-right leader, who remains in the United States, rejects the “unfounded” accusations of his successor and in turn condemns the “looting and invasions of public buildings”
The security forces take control of the situation, after several hours of chaos reminiscent of the invasion of the Capitol in Washington by supporters of Donald Trump two years earlier.
The international community condemns the incidents and expresses broad support for the constitutional order embodied by Lula.
About 2,000 people are arrested and more than a thousand remain in detention in the framework of investigations to establish responsibilities and complicity in the excesses.
Judicial siege on Bolsonaro
On January 11, the police strengthens security in major cities of the country, before rumors of new Bolsonaro demonstrations.
The next day, Lula points to complicity of officials with the assailants of the 8th and it is said “convinced that the door of the Palace [presidencial] Planalto was opened for people to enter, because there are no broken doors.
On the 13th, the government confirms that the police found, during a search of the house of Bolsonaro’s former Justice Minister, Anderson Torres, the draft of a presidential decree that aimed to annul Lula’s election.
On the same day, the supreme court accepts the request for the Prosecutor’s Office to include Bolsonaro in the investigation into the instigators of acts of violence.
According to the judicial body, Bolsonaro “made public incitement to the practice of a crime” through social networks and in a video that questions the results of the elections, published on the 10th and withdrawn the following day.
On the 14th, the police arrested former minister Torreson suspicion of “collusion” with the participants in the riots on the 8th.
Torres, who was in the United States, announced that hehe would graduate to prove his innocence and was arrested upon disembarking at the Brasilia airport.
